Open Data and the Right to Privacy in a global digital strategy

The ODC’s contribution to the United Nations’ Global Digital Compact

by Renato Berrino Malaccorto, Research Manager, Open Data Charter (ODC)

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

Following the political declaration adopted on the United Nations’ 75th anniversary in September 2020, the Secretary-General in September 2021 released his report Our Common Agenda. The Common Agenda proposes a Global Digital Compact to be agreed at the Summit of the Future in September 2024 through a technology track involving all stakeholders: governments, the United Nations system, the private sector (including tech companies), civil society, grass-roots organizations, academia, and individuals, including youth.

The Global Digital Compact proposes the following thematic axes:

• Connect all people to the internet, including all schools
• Avoid internet fragmentation
• Protect data
• Apply human rights online
• Introduce accountability criteria for discrimination and misleading content
• Promote regulation of artificial intelligence
• Digital commons as a global public good

The ODC contributed to the Global Digital Compact by conducting an analysis and debate to help understand access to information and open data as a fundamental human right, in balance with the right to privacy.

Regarding the Global Digital Compact topics, those that are linked to our contribution are: data protection; application of human rights online; and digital commons as a global public good.

Methodology

In order to share our input, we used a mixed methodological approach.

First, we conducted desk research about national and international regulations on access to public information, open data and the right to privacy. We also consulted principles and reports produced from different organizations and stakeholders.

As a second step, we invited key stakeholders on the subject of Open Data and the Right to Privacy to inform the contribution report. We conducted two consultation sessions via Zoom. 17 organizations (see acknowledgments) that work on Open Data, Access to Information, Digital Rights and on Right to Privacy joined the discussion and shared their ideas.

For the collective discussion, we worked together in a Jamboard trying to answer the following proposed questions:

1. Why should access to information and open data be included in a global digital strategy? — This question led us to discuss the VALUE of the institutes.
2. What shared tools or principles do you know to balance openness and the right to privacy? — This question led us to explore PRINCIPLES.
3. What are the challenges to achieve this balance between openness and respect for privacy? — This question led us to understand the CHALLENGES.
4. Which actors should not be missing in the conversation regarding the balance of Open Data and the Right to Privacy? — This question helped us to identify key ACTORS.
5. What specific actions and/or policies would we need to guarantee this balance without compromising any of the rights? What can and should the international community do about it? — This question helped us to come across ACTIONS.

Although in the research and consultation we worked more broadly to contextualize and better understand the balance between the institutes, the contribution to the Pact is mainly divided into: 1) Principles; 2) Actions

• Principles: core principles that all governments at the national and sub-national level, companies, civil society organizations, and other stakeholders should adhere to.
• Actions: key commitments to bring about these specific principles. These can take the form of what participants think “should” be done, and/or based on what their organization has already committed to do.

The resulting document, prior to submission, was also open for public consultation in an online platform during March 2023. In addition, the document was shared with all the participants that joined the session for additional comments or views.

Finally, the contribution to the Global Digital Compact was sent before March 31, 2023. All the submissions done by different institutions and organizations (including ours), can be found here.

The UN will present the contributions at the Summit of the Future in 2024.

Key findings

In the report, after doing research and a consultation process with key actors, we proposed core principles and key commitments that should be taken into consideration to incorporate Open Data and the Right to Privacy in a Global Digital Strategy.

Some of the principles we worked on are:

• In terms of open data, ODC proposes 6 principles; Inclusive human rights impact assessments and participatory technology assessments; Trust: that data is accurate and stored securely. The data collection must be proportional and necessary; Necessary dialogue between Open by default and Privacy by design; Digitally/culturally appropriate consent, grievance and complaint mechanisms; Risk assessment tools that also engage with risks at collective levels; Participatory deliberative processes to establish contextually appropriate regulation (including the use of existing toolkits for non-expert engagement); Data Sovereignty that goes beyond an individual’s rights towards their data (PII) to also include groups’ collective rights towards data that is about them or affects them; Other principles shared by the participants: Security by Design (SbD). Data Minimization Principle, Principle of maximum publicity.
• In addition, the participants shared different principles that already exist and have been developed by different organizations, for example: FAIR principles; CARE principles; ICO Guidance; The Five Safes; The ODI Data Spectrum; The public interest test; Trusted Research Environments; MyData principles; Foundation for Public Code [guide]; Human Rights Council “resolution on the promotion and protection of human rights on the internet”; The Global Principles on Protection of Freedom of Expression and Privacy from Article 19; Data Ethics Canvas of the Open Data Institute (ODI); the principles of Data Ethics in the Public Sector of the OECD; and the UK data ethics framework, Necessary and Proportionate of the EFF. The ODI Canvas, for example, is a valuable tool that guides us in data collection, use and publication processes, proposing a series of items to think about in the development of projects: identify data sources, their limitations, the possibilities of sharing this data or not, the ethical and legislative context, identifying the rights linked to these data sources, the positive and negative effects that it can have on citizens, communication, among other points.

The commitments and actions that we collectively suggested were organized into the following subdomains:

• Democracy strengthening
• Technical work
• Data governance
• Data literacy (learning and training)
• Collaboration and engagement (network building)
• Regulatory framework

In addition, we explored ideas on the value of Access to Information and Open Data. the actors that should not be missing in the conversation regarding the balance of Open Data and the Right to Privacy, and the challenges we are facing.

You can read all the findings and explore the ideas in the full report at this link.

The way forward

For the reasons explained in the report, we believe that Open Data and the Right to Privacy are not only complimentary, but must be understood in harmony when practiced, in order to protect fundamental human rights. There are different regulations, guides and principles that help us to balance this situation and push us to achieve coherence in the development of public policies.

We hope this contribution will nurture the Global Digital Compact, with the objective to achieve an open, free and secure digital future for all.

As a follow-up to this report we will continue this conversation so that we can deepen the exploration of data rights to find the right balance. We will seek to continue collaborating and sharing spaces with the organizations involved, producing pieces of knowledge and sharing these . We will also continue to investigate the impact of openness and data protection regulations and the lessons that their implementations are giving us.

Acknowledgments

The following collaborators joined us for the discussion sessions. We thank them for their participation, insight, and review of the report:

• Open Data Institute: Gavin Freeguard
• MyData Global: Christopher Wilson and Viivi Lähteenoja
• Open North: Thomas Linder and Marie Plamondon
• International Development Research Centre: Fernando Perini
• Global Data Barometer: Silvana Fumega
• Cities Coalition for Digital Rights: Florencia Serale and Milou Jensen
• The Engine Room: Lesedi Bewlay
• IADB: Evelyn Molina Bolanos
• Social TIC: Juan Casanueva
• Hiperderecho: Dilmar Villena
• Fundación Internet Bolivia: Wilfredo Jordan
• Association for Progressive Communication: Paula Martins
• TEDIC: Eduardo Carrillo and Maricarmen Sequera
• Fundación Karisma: Pilar Saenz and Juan de Brigard
• Centro de Estudios en Libertad de Expresión y Acceso a la Información: Ramiro Álvarez Ugarte and Lina Vazquez
• Article 19: Martha Tudon
• Open Data Charter: Mercedes de Los Santos and Natalia Carfi.

If you would like to join our network of over 170 governments and civil society organizations by adopting the international Open Data Charter principles read more here or e-mail us at info@opendatacharter.org.